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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

October 21, 1976

I
think that it's time for another Tuesday Timeline entry, don't you?

I
tell you one thing. Tuesday Timeline
entries are some of my favourite ones to write because I learn so much about
pop culture and other related topics.
And in this case, today's date marks sort of an end...before the
end. If that makes any sort of sense at
all.

Don't
worry. I'll be explaining that a little
bit later in this blog. For now though,
why not have a look at some of the major events that took place around the
world on October 21. A lot of
interesting things happened on this date, you know?

1520 - Explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Strait
of Magellan or the same day that another explorer - Joao Alvares Fagundes -
discovers the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

1797 - The United States Navy frigate USS
Constitution is launched at Boston Harbor, complete with a 44-gun salute

1854 - Nurse Florence Nightingale along with
thirty-eight other nurses are sent to the Crimean War

1861 - Colonel Edward Baker is killed during the Battle
of Ball's Bluff during the American Civil War

1879 - Thomas Edison invents a workable light bulb at
his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory which lasts a little over thirteen hours
before burning out

1910 - HMS Niobe arrives in Halifax Harbour,
becoming the first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy

Well,
let's take a trip back in time thirty-eight years ago to October
21, 1976.

That
was the day that the British rock band "The Who" would wrap up their
second of two tours promoting their 1975 album "The Who By
Numbers". And the final concert of
the tour was a Canadian date, playing at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto,
Ontario.

Now,
the final show of a concert tour is usually memorable for a lot of
reasons. In the case of The Who's
October 21, 1976 concert, it was especially memorable as it ended up being one
member's swan song.

Less
than two years after he walked away from touring with The Who, he would end up
dead following a massive drug overdose.

Of
course, the writing was on the wall for a long time. While The Who could easily be considered musical geniuses of
their day with hits like "Behind Blue Eyes", "My
Generation", "Baba O'Riley", and "Who Are You" making
headway on the charts, their tenure as a band was certainly tumultuous at
times.

And
perhaps no member of The Who was more troubled than Keith Moon. We'll get into the what, where, why, and
yes, who about the story of Keith Moon a little later, but for now, let's focus
on the when.

The
when was October 21, 1976. The who in
question was Keith Moon. The where was
Toronto, Ontario. The what? Well, that was the date in which he played
his final tour date before unofficially retiring from the band.

But
why? That is the question that still
remains unanswered. And to answer it,
we should probably take a look at the events that took place prior to October
21, 1976.

Born
in Wembley, London, England on the 23rd of August, 1946, Keith Moon seemed to
be a bit of a problem child right at the start. Being extremely hyperactive as a child, he would often have a
vivid imagination and this would get him into trouble at school. He had a fondness for practical jokes, and
often found himself fascinated by explosions - the louder, the better. Remember that point for later.

Moon
joined the local Sea Cadet Corps band at the age of twelve to play the bugle,
but when he couldn't figure out how to play it, he switched to playing the drums. After leaving school at age fourteen, he
enrolled at a technical college, leading him to get a job as a radio repairman,
allowing him to purchase his very first drum set.

Now,
how he came to join The Who is a frequently disputed story, but the facts we do
know is that The Who needed a new drummer after the departure of Doug Sandom in
early 1964, and Moon arrived at a concert given by the band with a session
drummer filling in. The most commonly
believed story goes that Moon approached the band and told them that he could
play much better than the guy who was playing for them. The rest of the band gave him a chance, and
Moon played with such vigor that he reportedly nearly destroyed the drum set
that was at the venue! Moon then became
The Who's permanent replacement beginning in mid-1964.

And,
with Keith Moon joining the band, it caused a permanent change in dynamics of
the group. You see, the band members of
The Who played beautiful music together, but it was also widely known that the
members of the band had terrible personal relationships with each other. The feud between Roger Daltrey and Pete
Townshend often had clashes with each other, but back when Sandom was still in
the band, he acted as peacemaker and would calm both Daltrey and Townshend down. After all, Sandom was at least a decade
older than the other members of The Who when he joined.

But
here came this new guy, Keith Moon, with a hyperactive personality and
uncontrollable temper, and all hell broke loose. Remove the peacekeeper, and you have four band members all
struggling to be heard no matter how badly they behaved. At some point during Moon's tenure with The
Who, he had clashed with Daltrey, Townshend, and John Entwistle.

And,
let's just say that Keith Moon brought his own destructive behaviour into the
band the only way he knew how to.
Here's a list of some of things that took place while he was a member of
The Who.

-
He and Entwistle were late for a gig that the Who were playing because they
were hanging out with Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, leading to a physical
altercation between Moon and Townshend, and causing Moon and Entwistle to quit
the band - both rejoined a week later.

-
He got a limousine to turn around and take the band back to the hotel they
stayed at just so Moon could throw the television set into the swimming pool.

-
Reportedly caused half a million dollars in damage during his lifetime by
destroying multiple hotel rooms.

-
He basically blew up every single toilet in the hotel rooms that The Who stayed
in with cherry bombs and explosives, causing the band to be kicked out of every
single hotel they stayed at.

-
Moon's 21st birthday celebrations in August 1967 were a major disaster. The band played in Flint, Michigan and
stayed at a Holiday Inn where Keith knocked out part of his front tooth after
starting a drunken food fight. When
Keith was getting his tooth removed, the rest of the party grew out of control
with other guests being thrown into the pool, fire extinguishers being set off,
and a grand piano getting destroyed before the police were called to stop the
madness. The band was presented with a
$24,000 bill and told to get out of the hotel immediately.

-
He accidentally killed his bodyguard Neil Boland in 1970 when Boland was struck
by Moon's car while he was driving.
Although the death was ruled accidental, this incident affected him the
rest of his life.

-
During a 1973 concert, Moon passed out twice during a concert in Daly City,
California, prompting the band to ask a random audience member, Scot Halpin, to
fill in.

-
He also passed out during a 1976 concert and the day after, destroyed
everything in his hotel room, cutting himself.
Had his manager not found him in time, he would have bled to death. This was the moment in which Daltrey and
Townshend considered firing Moon, but decided against it because they thought
it would make matters worse.

Of
course, all of these instances could easily be explained. While it's true that Keith Moon had a
certain personality that was unlike most others, the destructive behaviour was
linked to his dependence on drugs and alcohol.
He had been taking amphetamines when he joined The Who, and he gradually
became addicted to both alcohol and drugs.
But while Moon's drug and alcohol abuse didn't initially seem to have an
impact on The Who's music during the 1960s, it all caught up to him by the time
he had destroyed his hotel room in 1976 and nearly died because of it.

By
the time the band was midway through their 1976 tour, Keith Moon had already
become sluggish and unable to concentrate.
He had gained a considerable amount of weight and couldn't keep up with
the band as well as he used to. He had
been frequently in and out of hospital due to his dependence on drugs, and the
rest of the band weren't sure that Moon would make it to the end of the tour.

So,
that leads up to October 21, 1976. The
final stop on the band's 1976 tour, and the final concert show that Moon would
ever play in front of a live crowd. You
now know the why. Moon had to leave the
band because he physically and emotionally couldn't do it anymore. The drug abuse, the death of his friend, his
body beginning to turn against him. It
all grew to be too much.

For
what it was worth, that final concert in Toronto was memorable, as he finished
the show without incident.

Sadly, less than two years later, on September
7, 1978, Keith Moon died as a direct result of swallowing thirty-two
clomathiazole pills at once - pills that ironically were used to help alleviate
symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. He was just
32 years old.